Monday, August 3, 2009

Planting Trees to Help the Environment

One way that we can be good environmental stewards of this planet is to plant trees. Trees are a source of life, and they provide a delicate balance to our ecosystem. Trees remove air pollution, filter out chemicals and agricultural waste in water, and they save communities across the country millions of dollars in stormwater management costs. They also act as a Carbon sink, taking Carbon Dioxide from the atmosphere, and storing it. Trees also improve community health by removing air and water pollution that can make you ill.

A crucial part of my long term goal is to purchase undeveloped land that has been disturbed and restore it to a natural state. I know I have written a lot about money and how I would raise money to purchase land. Land is not cheap, even previously disturbed land. That is why I have to use Global Ecotec to run an eco-friendly business that hopefully turns a profit. Land acquisition would come out of any profit made by the business. The land purchased, as I wrote before, would be restored to as close to a natural state as possible and also used as an educational center for the FieldTaught concept of environmental education.

To return disturbed land to a natural state we would plant as many trees as the land would support, leaving only a small area for a teaching compound. That is why you see a donation box on the right side of the page. Anyone who wants to help with this effort can donate money. For every dollar donated, a seedling would be planted in the donors name. You can donate as many times as you want. Now I want to make this point clear: Before we can plant trees, we need to buy land. Any money donated before land is acquired will not be spent but saved in a dedicated bank account until land is purchased. As I mentioned before, my family owns a large piece of land in Alabama; however, I live approximately 5 hours from the site. So I cannot keep an eye on the trees and make sure they are watered and kept healthy. Perhaps in the future I could hire someone or get a local volunteer to do this.

Seedlings for this project in Louisiana would likely be obtained from the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry seed orchards. These seed orchards have been tested for superior growth and disease resistance. The growth rates on these seedlings average about 17% increase in growth rates from wild seedlings. If the property is located in another state, then we would coordinate with that state's forestry department to see what would be the optimal species' to use to reforest the area.

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